YA, Pop Culture, and You, the READER!

Hi everyone. I've had this blog post rattling around in my brain for a few weeks now and I think it's finally time to put it out there. There's no place like the YA-5 to question the norms and find out what the readers REALLY think of industry standards and yadda yadda yadda.

So here's the thing: pop culture in YA can be kind of a hot button. Some people think that referencing a popular actress or hit song immediately dates a book -- and I can't argue with that. If I set out tomorrow to write a book, whether it's YA contemporary or adult horror, I'm probably not going to talk about my protagonist's addiction to Ke$ha. No matter how catchy Ke$ha's music is. I mean, I have no idea which pop stars are going to be remembered just two years from now (which, even if my book sold the day I finished it, is probably about how long it would take for the novel to hit stores), let alone five or ten years.

Do you watch your fave
shows with your friends?

But here's the dilemma: a lot of teens -- a lot of people -- really think in terms of pop culture. We schedule our evenings around our favorite TV shows. (I have friends who go to Glee-watching parties, and in high school I had my BFF over once a week for Buffy night.) We stand in line for hours to be in the front row at a concert for our favorite band. We make play lists for ourselves and our friends on iTunes. We idolize actresses and models and pop stars and emulate their styles. Is there any way to write a book without talking about some of these things? Sure. Do I want to? Not really.

I aspire to write characters that feel like your friends, your family. I like it when I'm inside a character's head and I can see what she likes and how she relates to her world. If my character is an audiophile, you can bet she's going to relate to her world through her favorite bands. If my character is a musician, she'll probably talk about her influences. If my character loves fashion, she's definitely going to describe clothing in terms of style icons. For some, it might cut it to make up names. This doesn't always work for me.

So when is it too much pop culture? I think it comes down to context. If I can talk about a band from 1994 that you don't know about, and make you feel like you know why it's important, does that work for you? If my book takes place in 1980, is it more obnoxious to have my character reference made up movies and fashion icons, or to talk about real ones that you don't know much about?

Like all things, I think pop culture in literature is about balance. And like all writing, there's got to be a reason for anything an author puts into a book, whether it's violence or a sex scene or swear words or a sub plot or your character's iPod playlist. I mean, if I can go again to HIGH FIDELITY, that book simply wouldn't have been right without all the real pop culture infusion it showcased. Music is what makes that book work. As a reader, what makes a music-y, pop-culture-y book work for you?

Forces of evil on a Bozo nightmare

The other night, some writing friends and I decided to have an all night write, wherein we would virtually encourage each other on The Twitter while we stayed up all night long to write our faces off.

If you are so inclined to see what happens when I stay up past 11pm, I invite you to search The Twitter for #allnightwrite. You will not be disappointed.

Unfortunately, #allnightwrite only lasted until about 1:30am. Yes, we were flailing wimps, but some writing was accomplished, much hilarity ensued, and an important fact was discovered.

FACT: Some writers enjoy rocking their faces off as they write their faces off.

OTHER FACT: Some writers enjoy listening to things like Gregorian Chants, even though they are mocked by the writers in the previous fact.

I fall into the first group, choosing to really enlouden things up while I'm working. This rarely poses a problem, unless I'm forced to wear ear buds, and then there's a lot of complaining and less writing because I am afflicted with tiny, shrimpy ear holes and I can't find ear buds that don't, basically, try to dilate my ears open wider in a painful ear gauge kind of way, except, you know, a painful ear gauge kind of way - in the wrong hole. It is unpleasant, and it hurts, and I might have to start a foundation in support of those of us with tiny ear holes so that the ear bud industry will be forced to provide miniature ear buds that conform to our hideous features.

ANYWAY. I like to rock my face off with a variety of noisy music. Sometimes I go old school with Metallica or Marilyn Manson. Sometimes I enjoy Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica drumming. Sometimes I continue to go old school and whip out the Nirvana.

Well, who am I kidding, really? I predominately listen to 90s grungy type stuff while I'm writing. Though I allow Pandora to widen my horizons away from just Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Jane's Addiction. Though not much wider. My horizons, they are small and familiar.

To wit: Pandora chose this lovely offering for me this afternoon:

Heaven Beside You, Alice in Chains
Lump, The Presidents of the United States of America
Aneurysm, Nirvana
It tried to throw in some Wonderwall, but I refused to allow this travesty.
Loser, Beck
Longview, Green Day
Some Postman, The Presidents of the United States of America
Learn to Fly, Foo Fighters
Lithium, Nirvana
I Alone, Live

Excellent writing music, and also excellent driving music.

(Do not judge, lest ye be judged. Once you have been to a million concerts where you get kicked in the face with Doc Martins on purpose so that you can see Eddie Vedder/Scott Weiland/Layne Staley (RIP) up close, sweating on you, then you can be all, "Ha Ha, she's so old.")

So, lovely YA-5 readers, what music do you like to listen to when you write? The noisier the better? The chantier the better? The nothing the better?

TELL ME. I WANT TO KNOW. IT IS MAKING ME SHOUTY. THE EXCITEMENT, THAT IS. OF WANTING TO KNOW.

And as a reward for telling me what you listen to when you write, here is a picture of me when I was a junior in high school, taken by my boyfriend at the time - a young man who was very serious about educating me in the ways of... music. I'm sorry you can't see my flannel. It was awesome. And warm.

Me, possibly musing about the world, but most likely wondering if there is somewhere to go get coffee.